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Liam Cosgrave’s political legacy

Sat, Oct 21, 2017, 00:04

Sir, – Diarmaid Ferriter’s assessment of the late taoiseach Liam Cosgrave fails to place in context the state we were in during his term of office (“Cosgrave support for Garda cast a long shadow”, Opinion & Analysis, October 14th).

Just to mention a few pertinent matters, the IRA kidnapped industrialists, murdered Fine Gael Senator Billy Fox, killed gardaí, assassinated the British ambassador, bombed the Special Criminal Court, robbed banks, aimed to bring down a State it did not recognise, and tried to use this jurisdiction as a base to launch a sectarian and murderous attack on Border Protestants. Hardly a time for drawing-room niceties regarding civil liberties? Eamon de Valera, when he had to deal with an IRA threat, allowed the judicial execution of some in the IRA to proceed, allowed others to die on hunger strike, employed military tribunals and interned people without trial, actions which Liam Cosgrave did not resort to. – Yours, etc,